Bird study group gets $200,000 from S'pore donor

A GROUP of volunteers pioneering the study of bird behaviour in Singapore has received a surprise donation of $200,000 from a member of the public who wishes to stay anonymous.

The Bird Ecology Study Group, whose decade-old blog documenting the minutiae of local bird habitsis one of the 10 most visited bird blogs in the world, received the money in April from a Singaporean woman in her 50s.

The avid bird-watcher wanted to contribute towards research that goes beyond simply bird- watching, said former Nature Society Singapore president Wee Yeow Chin, 77. The group's founder, he single-handedly runs the blog, with input from a few hundred contributors.

"After a while, bird-watching is just more of the same thing," said Dr Wee, a retired botanist who got hooked on studying birds in 2005. "She wanted to make a contribution to science. There's so much about our local birds to learn about that most Singaporeans don't know."